Before the Tsukihi Phoenix arc started, I wrote that 4 episodes would be easily enough to fit the whole thing in. However, I had not anticipated Shaft using an entire episode just for that toothbrush scene. Now, with 2 episodes left, I’m not so sure how Shaft will fit the rest of the story in. I can tell you, this episode HAS to get to Kagenui’s next appearance, and I see this as a big challenge. Otherwise, Shaft will have to extend the show an extra episode through a web episode or OVA, and that would be shameful. Let’s see if Shaft has managed to pull it off!

100 yen sale at Mr. Donut: an event of utmost importance.

Koyomi is back home, ready to get back to his studies, when Shinobu decides to bother him this time. Her request? There’s a 100 yen sale at Mister Donut, and she needs him to take her there. Koyomi capitulates, and off they go, with Shinobu hidden in his shadow until they get to the store.

But before he can leave, he runs into the one who tried to murder him that morning, his one and only youngest younger sister, Tsukihi, just out of the bath. She is quite frank now about how she perceives the Fire Sisters, that she’s just not into the whole “friend of justice” act as much as Karen is. She expresses some fears about how she’ll grow distant from Karen as the latter enters high school, and that the Fire Sisters just might disband very soon. Koyomi is taken aback by the lucidity his sister displays. But then he’s taken aback even more when notices that she is missing a scar on her chest that should be there, one she got when she leapt off the school building during one of her misadventures as a friend of justice. In fact, all her skin is perfect, like a baby’s, not a hint of injury or scars.

Poor Tsukihi is destined to be left behind and bullied by her older siblings!

Shinobu is literally a kid in a candy store (ok, I’m stretching the definition of candy to include donuts), and Koyomi decides this is a good time to ask her about our new characters, Kagenui and Ononoki. Shinobu comments that Ononoki is indeed not a human but rather Kagenui’s familiar, but she’s also not willing to give him all the details just for some donuts. So why not ask that guy sitting behind you eating donuts alone? Koyomi turns around to discover… the man who swore he’d never come back to town again, the one and only Kaiki Deishuu.

Didn’t think you’d see him again, did ya?

That’s right, the lying liar who promised never to come back into town has… come back into town. Whodathunkit? After getting over his initial shock, Koyomi approaches him, who states that he had some minor business to take care of (his main reason for returning was that he had coupons that could only be used at this Mr. Donut). Despite knowing that he’s probably making a mistake, he asks Kaiki for information about Kagenui and Ononoki, in exchange for 2,000 yen… or so he thought, but actually, it’s his entire wallet EXCEPT 2,000 yen. Happy enough with the exchange, Kaiki explains that Kagenui and Ononoki are like him, “Ghostbusters,” whose specialty is the immortal. And unlike him, they’re the real deal.

On his way back home – with Shinobu riding in the bicycle basket (due to this, Koyomi has some difficulty pedaling while keeping his shadow covering the front of the bike the whole time) – Koyomi wonders if Kagenui’s target is himself and Shinobu, as they’re the only immortals he knows of in this town. Shinobu says she doubts that, since there could be plenty more immortals other than them; in her lifetime, she herself has killed and eaten plenty of immortals. And, after all, there are plenty of oddities that Koyomi himself has run into in this town; there could be plenty more he doesn’t know about.

Hey, speak of the devil…

Well, when they get home, they get the opportunity to find out directly, as Kagenui and Ononoki are right there at his front gate, the former sitting perched atop the gate as expected and Ononoki ringing the doorbell constantly. Koyomi asks straight up if their target is them, and Kagenui laughs it off, saying that thanks to Oshino (Meme), issues surrounding the Iron-Blooded, Hot-Blooded, Cold-Blooded Vampire, Killer of Monsters and King of Monsters, Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade (now known as Oshino Shinobu) are over. Their target is someone different.

Ononoki’s shining fingerUltimate Shaft Headtilt Unlimited Rulebook…

…leaves absolutely no doubt as to the results.

And just then, Tsukihi comes out yelling – with awl in one hand – upset that someone is constantly ringing the doorbell. This is when Onongi proves to us just how supernatural she is, by extending her finger – some magic called “Unlimited Rulebook” – right through the front gate and to Tsukihi, cleanly cutting off the entire top half of her body. Koyomi understandibly goes in a fit of rage, attempting to strangle Ononoki, but he’s knocked out before he can reach her. When he awakens, he’s folded in half on the ground with Kagenui sitting on top of him. And when Kagenui instructs him to look up, he sees that Tsukihi is asleep on the ground, the top of her yukata gone, but otherwise unharmed. Ononoki calmly explains to Koyomi that Tsukihi has been possessed by an immortal creature, a phoenix. They’re here to kill it by killing her.

But Shinobu steps in, saying that she won’t let them fight like this out in public anymore. Kagenui is doubtful that the ex-vampire has the capacity to follow through on that, but she decides to let it go for now, admitting that she doesn’t want to kill a girl right in front of her older brother. But she will return tomorrow, and if Koyomi and Shinobu get in their way again, she will consider them enemies and kill them as well.

“Make sure all your affairs are in order, for I’ll be back tomorrow.”

FanPhoenix service!

Oh Shinbo, you foot fetishist you…

“Why do I have a more physical relationship with my brother than with my own boyfriend!?”

What do you mean, I can’t hold all these donuts!?

Click for full-size image.

Well, an incredibly eventful episode of Nisemonogatari. I wrote that Shaft would have a hard time getting to the return of Kagenui and Ononoki this episode, but they managed to pull it off, with time enough to spare to show the OP and the ED. This truly was efficient adaptation in action. To do this, they cut liberally from the scenes within (as usual, they did not cut out any scenes, merely the content within them), and they left in only the parts that were 100% relevant to the story at hand.

Some bits that were cut include:

Shinobu admitted that she reached out to trip Koyomi last episode so that he would come home faster so that they could get to Mr. Donut faster.

Shinobu’s “secret source” that told her that Mr. Donut was having a sale was an ad in a paper that Koyomi himself had also read.

Koyomi was initially unwilling to take Shinobu to Mr. Donut, and Shinobu had to negotiate with him, offering Mayoi to him at one point.

Shinobu mentioned that she spends much of her waking time in Koyomi’s shadow playing a Nintendo DS, which she recreated after seeing one in Nadeko’s house.

Shinobu distracted Koyomi from studying much in the same way as Karen in episode 8, by clinging onto him from the back, except much stronger.

Kaiki took quite a bit of interest at the beautiful blonde loli eating with Koyomi and offered to make her a model, selling photos of her and sharing the profits. He also threatened to let Hitagi know that Koyomi was out on a date with this little girl, but Koyomi called his bluff, pointing out that he didn’t even know how to contact her.

Kaiki mentioned that the actions of the Fire Sisters to heal all the curses after the events of Karen Bee had eaten away at his profits.

Before Koyomi left Kaiki at Mr. Donut, he asked to get one item from his wallet back – this was a photo of Hitagi that had been taken since the events of Karen Bee.

In fact, all mentions of Hitagi have been cut out from Tsukihi Phoenix so far. Remember that haircut she was supposed to have based on the pre-release art?

Koyomi used the 2,000 yen he had left to buy some donuts to bring home to Karen and Tsukihi.

In front of the Araragi home, Shinobu actually got out of the basket very early on in the conversation. But since the basket was a tight fit, the only way she could get out was by tipping the bike over and crawling out.

So, how about that OH SHI- moment at the end there when Tsukihi was killed? During my reading, I had a feeling that this scene had to correspond with the end of this episode; starting the final episode with that, and then having the resolution in the same episode would’ve made for a poor finale. The twist is out now, and the arc title Tsukihi Phoenix means just that: Tsukihi is possessed by a Phoenix. It may seem a bit odd that if she’s been possessed by a phoenix, that Kagenui has to kill Tsukihi instead of only the phoenix itself. And why would that make Tsukihi not Koyomi’s real little sister, as Kagenui mentioned? What to make of her final lines about the phoenix infilitrating and fooling a human family as a fake? This will be explained in more detail next episode, but without spoiling anything, it’s something that reminds me a bit of the concept of Immaculate Conception.

And if what Kagenui says is true, that Tsukihi isn’t truly Koyomi’s little sister, what irony that the sister with whom he has a pseudo-incestuous relationship with is Karen, who is his full-blood sister!

I guess the anime couldn’t avoid putting the precursor to the reveal about Tsukihi in the same episode as the actual reveal due to their proximity in the actual story. I’m talking, of course, of the brief conversation she and Koyomi had before he left for Mr. Donut. This was probably the most of Tsukihi we’ve seen so far, at least the most honest of herself. We got to learn that she’s a sharper person than Koyomi gives her credit for, and she has no delusions about the direction that the Fire Sisters are headed with both Karen and herself growing up. She openly admitted that, as her older brother calls her, she is a fake. Somewhat unexpected from someone who’s been described as and shown to be a “hysteric” person who often acts rashly and violently without thinking. And, of course, the scar that was missing from her chest was a direct foreshadowing of the reveal concerning the phoenix (and the source of that specific scar, as mentioned in the synopsis above, was from one of her rash unthinking decisions while chasing someone).

There’s a parallel here between the Fire Sisters and the Kagenui + Ononoki team, both considering themselves to be “friends of justice,” out to protect others by defeating frauds. That they end up being opponents reflects the cynicism and contradiction that Nisio likes to play with so much. Kagenui is clearly made out to be the villain – especially with the evil looks and wonderfully pompous acting by Ryouko Shiraishi this episode – and through that, we see that the Fire Sisters could be considered just as villainous. Kaiki was Koyomi’s philsophical counterpart in the Karen Bee arc, and Kagenui and Ononoki are that to the Fire Sisters in the Tsukihi Phoenix arc.

One thing that has stood out to me more and more as this show has gone on is the background music. Once again, scenes with Shinobu were accompanied by a Renaissance-esque tune, despite the setting being much less church-like than the Araragi bathroom from before. Kaiki’s theme was also played while they were inside the Mr. Donut, and both were excellent pieces that set the mood nicely. The music when shit hit the fan at the end of the episode was good, too.

A fine job with the visuals once again by Shaft. Whereas last episode was a bit more standard in that respect, this one was much more similar to episode 8, playing fast and loose with super deformed characters and metaphorical images. I loved the image of Karen bullying Tsukihi in the wrestling ring, as well as Shinobu’s reaction faces. I admit that the Mr. Donut interior looked a lot more standard than I was expecting. Come one, is it too much to ask to make it look like a cathedral interior or some other equally unfitting aesthetic for a donut chain shop?

Always nice to see more of Hajime Ueda’s art within the show itself.

Great episode overall, better than what I predicted, successfully covering everything that it needed to, while also displaying the good parts of Shinbo’s unique direction. Like with the Karen Bee arc, the pacing has been hugely inconsistent in Tsukihi Phoenix, what with the very slow 1st 2 episodes followed by this rush of a 3rd episode. Yes, they should have planned it out better, but at this point, Shaft did the best that it could do to make the arc fit in the episodes that are left (of course, I have a hard time blaming them for dedicating an entire episode to the toothbrush scene; that one was glorious, the Nisemonogatari equivalent to Tsubasa Cat Part 2 – i.e. episode 12 – of Bakemonogatari).

Next episode, how will Tsukihi herself react to the revelation that she’s not entirely who she thinks she is, that she’s more of a fake than she even thought herself? Let’s think about the line from the OP lyrics, “Now that I know what eternity is, I dedicate it to you,” as well as Shinobu’s own comments from episode 4 about the pain of being immortal, of seeing all your loved ones die before you. How will the Araragi household deal with the destruction of their front gate? Heck, what will the neighbors think!? And, of course, how in the world will Koyomi defeat Kagenui and Ononoki who have proven themselves to be far more competent and unforgiving than our heroes (could Kagenui’s weakness be… the ground? She’s yet to set foot on it!)? Well, we’ll have to wait one more week for the series finale!

21 Responses to “Nisemonogatari – 10”

My first impression, is that action in this series is doled out carefully. As I think I said in a previous comment, another doled out portion of this narrative is character, so it seems to be a penchant that Shinbo loves to revel in.

For the most part, action, in this series is kept to a minimum, and yet when it does strike it happens either in broad farce, or with much heightened reality. For the first point, we have the Koyomoi Olympic trials in the Molesting Mayoi Event. And for the second we have Koyomi as Karen’s Wrecking Ball (good thing this world has no other population than speaking characters or traffic would have been blitzed).

Now we see action strike again, and in such a bodily, nearly vulgar way. And I do mean vulgar. Not at all polite, crude in it’s mechanics (no matter how flashy), and seemingly serving no other purpose but to shock.(a more punctuated form of Kanbara beating the crap out of Koyomi in Bakemono)

Which brings me too, “We’re the good guys”

Nisemono. If the Monogatari series has anything to say, the concept of good or evil is not one you hammer down. By nature, Oddities act as they are supposed to act. No more and no less. As a human, you have some choices, but you have to live with them, and make amends if necessary. This does not seem to be in Kagenui outlook. Besides, have we even seen evidence of the evil that Tsukihi is supposed to be.

Animation was very cool in this show. I love the little tweak they did with Shinobu gracefully tumbling out of Koyomi’s shadow in the opening minutes. It was adorable.

Certainly there’s a sort of synergy working here with Shaft’s highly stylized type of action and the action that is possible in written format, which can be much more over the top and grotesque than is usually depicted in visual media. The shot of Tsukihi getting her top half destroyed was pretty much exactly as written in the novel. A less stylized series might have had a harder time depicting that scene in a way true to the source.

Nisio definitely, and Shinbo probably, are highly into postmodernism, which makes for a good combination as well. Right and wrong aren’t so much opposites as they are different ways of looking at the same thing. To Kagenui, Tsukihi is wrong for defrauding a human family into raising her, while to get the Araragi family can’t see it the same way. But it’s not that Koyomi has some privileged moral position; his judgments are determined by his point of view as well, and they happen to conflict with Kagenui’s.

It’s actually a thread that was prominent in both Karen Bee and Magical Girl Madoka Magica. Trying to decide what is objectively right or wrong is fruitless and just a way to fool yourself; what you have to do is to find your own selfish desires and follow that as what’s right. If Shaft adapts it right, we’ll see more exploration of this theme next episode.

You’re welcome. I’ve mentioned it before, but as one of the very few anime I’ve watched while being familiar with the source material, I’ve had a lot of fun looking at the various choices the studio has made in adapting.

Unlimited Finger Works! I really never expected that to play a part in NisiOisin story. xD

A very interesting episode and I like Kagenui and her familiar even more now. They are quite a deadly duo and I can’t wait to find what Araragi would do to save his own sister, even if she’s fake. I’m sure the cohabitation had some effect on the Phoenix? And one thing is clear, Koyomi’s life will always be surrounded by exceptional supernatural creatures. He’s a magnet for unique creatures.

Keep in mind that, though action isn’t his main thing, it’s a critical part of some of Nisio’s works, such as Katanagatari, which was punctuated by violence – extreme, senseless violence at times. I’m thinking of a time when a ninja chopped off one of his arms just as a an act of goodwill towards Togame, or killed one of his comrades for similar reasons.

As for Tsukihi, well, no matter what, Tsukihi is Koyomi’s little sister. Anything he learns after-the-fact is inconsequential to his love for her.

That’s a good way of explaining it. At a higher level, I think the main thing here is that Kagenui operates under different moral principles than Koyomi. And morality by definition is arbitrary and not based on logic. The story we’re seeing unfold here is that of people of different moral persuasions clashing with each other.

This is something we can expect from the postmodern cynical stories that Nisio writes, that it’s never a question of right or wrong or keeping internal logic, but rather a question of whether what’s right for one matches with what’s right for another person.

Shinobu is quite the donut fiend. Such enthusiasm driven by something so basic. I’m glad she got a lot of screen time. I love that loli vampire. It looks like plot pieces that would have turned out utterly useless end up being extremely useful towards later events. Take Shinobu going to eat donuts for example – Araragi would never have met Kaiki again had he not taken Shinobu to Mister Donuts, and so he wouldn’t have gotten any info on Yodzuru or Yotsugi.

Speaking of Yodzuru and Yotsugi. They didn’t have to say it out loud for us to be able to tell that they’re going to be much harder to deal with than Oshino, and the fact that they knew of Shinobu’s former full title as Kiss-Shot already marks them as dangerous people to deal with. They even saw through her bluff which is not a good sign. And Yotsugi acts like a MISAKA clone from Toaru Majutsu no Index, down to the same emotionless expressions.

Once a liar, always a liar. Still, Kaiki is likeable villain. He really impressed me as a villain in this series and performed the role perfectly. His sudden and unexpected reappearance was definitely one of the highlights of the episode. Seeing him take Araragi’s wallet, look disappointed at its contents, and then pocket it while explaining that he was giving him a discount for what happened with Senjougahara was truly amazing.

So Tsukihi isn’t posessed at all but is a phoenix? But she’s the youngest sibling, meaning someone had to have seen her come into the picture (meaning someone would have seen her being born). All along she’s been living with Koyomi and Karen, seemingly pretending to be their loving, albeit somewhat violent younger sister. You’ve gotta question exactly how much of everything she’s displayed is real, and how much is just an act. If this Tsukihi isn’t the real Tsukihi, is she aware that she isn’t the real thing? I doubt the next episode can bring everything to any kind of satisfying conclusion.

It looks like plot pieces that would have turned out utterly useless end up being extremely useful towards later events. Take Shinobu going to eat donuts for example –Araragi would never have met Kaiki again had he not taken Shinobu to Mister Donuts, and so he wouldn’t have gotten any info on Yodzuru or Yotsugi.

Well, that’s thinking backwards a bit; the reason Nisio wrote them as going to Mr. Donut was so that they could meet Kaiki, not that they went to Mr. Donut and they happened to find Kaiki. But the original point is certainly true, Nisio is good at dropping little seemingly inconsequential bits early on in a story and bringing them back as matters of importance later on. That’s actually pretty much his entire MO based on the works by him I’ve read or seen.

Seeing him take Araragi’s wallet, look disappointed at its contents, and then pocket it while explaining that he was giving him a discount for what happened with Senjougahara was truly amazing.

There’s certainly something compelling about Kaiki, as perhaps you’d expect from a con man. I don’t regret the part getting cut for timing reasons, but it would’ve been fun to see him see Koyomi’s photo of Hitagi and react to her new look.

So Tsukihi isn’t posessed at all but is a phoenix? But she’s the youngest sibling, meaning someone had to have seen her come into the picture (meaning someone would have seen her being born).

Next episode should provide some answers. But needless to say, Tsukihi will always be a real little sister to Koyomi, and nothing can change that.